Stop it! Please, I am begging you.

There has been a growing conflation of right-wing politics and right-wing Christianity almost my entire life. I was born 34 days before the Roe v. Wade ruling. Historians like Randall Balmer have demonstrated that this was the event that some used to make a right-wing religious voting bloc. So, it has been an issue for a long time. In fact, within six weeks of founding this website in 2011, I wrote a piece expressing concern that we, as Christians, were “voting away our witness.”

The Trump Era Begins

We all know something has changed over the last few years, well almost a decade, now. On June 16, 2015, Trump descended on an escalator in Trump Tower and it seems for many that the sky parted.

I have not been silent about how the Trump-ianity phenomenon concerns me. There was no immediate prostration before Trump. Initially, some resisted. But many embraced Donald Trump very quickly. In December of 2015, I was already seeing young people disturbed by older people they knew embracing Trump.

The Rise of Court Evangelicals

January 2016 was arguably the beginning of what historian John Fea aptly calls, Court Evangelicals. At this time Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the famous evangelist and president of Liberty University, officially endorsed Trump.

Trump, however, did not have universal support. Many Christians supported him but others backed Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, or any of several other candidates. Trump and Cruz were a different breed though. They were both leaning into a “graceless, loveless ideology” that in February 2016, I called an evangelical failing.

Evangelicals and the 2016 Election

In April 2016, historian Thomas Kidd argued that it was evangelicals in name only who didn’t even attend church that were the primary supporters of Trump. Unfortunately, the research at the time already clearly demonstrated that many in the church were supporting Trump.

By July 2016, Trump was nearing the nomination and evangelicals were falling in love. Then a recording was released where he gleefully admitted to sexual assault. I thought the love affair was done. But value voters embraced his bravado seeing it as more meaningful than any religious admonition that might guide them toward meekness. He won the election and the next day I wrote, “A eulogy for the public testimony of the Evangelical Church in America“.

Post-Election Idolatry and Hypocrisy

It has only gotten worse since 2016. Major Christian figures have been attacked for not supporting President Trump. I’ve seen pastors pushed out of their churches for not supporting Trump. Books have been published claiming that Jesus is the Son of God and Trump is the Son of Man. That book explicitly calls Trump, The Christ. Our Capitol was stormed and shockingly, many involved professed Christian faith. Liz Cheney coined the phrase Orange Jesus to describe the religious devotion to him. Franklin Graham compared Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th Insurrection to Judas.

It has been exhausting and heart breaking.

The idolatry and hypocrisy have been so transparent that it is blinding even to those outside the faith.

Trump as a Messianic Figure

It has gotten to the point that Trump is openly playing up overtly Christian, even messianic messaging. In late 2023, as trials were beginning to start Trump shared this image.

Earlier this year, Trump shared this messianic video.

Then Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. By this point, I know that perspectives are calcified. I didn’t fully know what to expect on Social Media but I was under no illusion that I would like it.

The Comparison to Christ

Someone shared the following image on a religious group that is not generally supportive of Trump.

Sadly, this is about what I expected. But I was concerned that my own biases were getting in my way. Since this is what I expected it was possible that Trump supporters weren’t sharing such things I didn’t want to believe a lie. So I went to the page of someone I am connected with who is very religious and very conservative. It got a little worse.

There is now no doubt in my mind that real conservative Christians are comparing the trial of a thrice-married serial adulterer and liar who has been found liable for sexual assault (rape in common parlance) and fraud and who is now a convicted felon and is facing several other felony indictments to the holy and sinless Christ Jesus.

Sickening.

The idolatry is transparent.

The Golden Calf Analogy

The problem is obvious- comparing Jesus with an unrepentant. But more subtly these posts admit that those who post them idolize Trump. They aren’t just voting for him or supporting his political agenda. They are following him similarly to how they profess to follow Christ.

In 2021, a golden statue of Donald Trump appeared at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference). The irony seemed lost on those there but almost everyone else saw it.

Christians who devoutly follow Trump will often protest against the claims that they are being idolatrous. They argue that they know the difference between God and man. They insist they are not worshiping him. Those who oppose Trump-ianity will point to images like the hat that says, “Jesus is my Savior Trump is my President” as evidence of a dangerous conflation.

Continued Irony

A few days later, my Social Media friend who shared the image comparing Trump’s conviction to Jesus’ shared an image that said, “We misrepresent God when we wear his name but not his character.” Exactly! It is astounding that Trumpians do not see their rabid support for the immoral and debased Trump in this light.

The Problem with Trump-ianity

Trumpians, by contrast, will point out that the hat clearly identifies Jesus as savior and Trump as president. They aren’t wrong. But they are.

In the first century, many wanted a Christ who was a political messiah. That wasn’t Jesus. Jesus came with a radically different message. He called for us to help the oppressed and turn the other cheek. He praised the poor and the meek. He never spoke about winning. He never bragged about being strong, smart, or rich. He subverted our human desires and provided what we needed.

Trump, on the other hand, feeds our human desires—our desires for strength, vengeance, and power, our desire to matter more than our neighbor. Rather than subverting our expectations, he emboldens our most debased instincts. There is nothing more anti-Jesus, more anti-Christ.

While Jesus is the Messiah we need, Trump is the messiah we want.

He takes power and wields it ruthlessly. He does what Jesus refused to do in the first century.

Reflections on Personal Experience

While living in New York City, I attended a very small Independent Fundamental Baptist church. I used to joke that it was probably the only IFB church I could attend. It was in NYC, within the Ground Zero radius, so it had a very different focus than an IFB church in a place such as South Carolina would have.

The pastor was a good deal more conservative than me but allowed questioning and me to challenge him. Honestly, it was a good church for me to attend at the time. It encouraged me to dig into scripture even if, perhaps, because my conclusions varied from the pastor’s.

For years, I had tremendous respect for the pastor. I’ll admit that changed when I saw him praising Trump as a good family man. I started attending his church at the time of the Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton scandal, so I remember what he said back then.

But I also remember a sermon he gave on the Golden Calf where he pointed out something I had never noticed before.

The Lesson from the Golden Calf

I think we all know the story. Moses was on the mountain too long, so the Israelites freaked out and asked Aaron to make them some god’s. Aaron made the Golden Calf. When Moses came down the mountain, he got furious at the idolatry and broke the tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments. In the narrative, there is no doubt that worshiping the Golden Calf was idolatry.

But I had never noticed what Aaron said to the Israelites. In Exodus 32, the Israelites had asked Aaron to make them an Elohim. After casting the calf, Aaron declares, “This is eloheicha (your god) who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!… Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD.” You see all those capital letters in LORD? When that happens in scripture, the personal name of God, YHWH, is used. Aaron declared that in worshiping the calf, they are worshiping YHWH, who brought them out of Egypt. But his making the calf enraged God and he told Moses they “have acted perversely.”

If you spoke to the Egyptians, they would have insisted that they weren’t being idolatrous. They were still worshiping God. But they misunderstood the character and nature of God.

The Modern Golden Calf

With this story in mind, the Golden Trump statue becomes even more poignant. All of Trump-ianity would declare that they still worship God. “Jesus is my Savior, and Trump is my president” and all that. But in devotedly following someone whose character is so opposed to the character of Christ, they cast their own golden calf. God has already declared such an act as acting “perversely.”

The Chosen One

Ironically, as I was writing this essay, I learned about a new song released by an evangelical, Natasha Owens, that declares Trump as God’s Chosen One.

I’m standing with the Chosen one

Ain’t no stopping what the Lord’s begun

He’s only human Like you and me

Just a chosen one The chosen one

This great nation Is under attack

And its real leader has Arrows in his back

So many greet him With a Judas kiss

But God gave us a warrior For such a time as this

-The Chosen One by Natasha Owens

LORD forgive us.

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